Mobile Takes 5/6 OpenSignal's Network Awards For Jan. 2018

OpenSignal attributes T-Mobile's lead to Verizon and AT&T's reintroduction of unlimited plans past year. Rootmetrics, which relies on independent drive-testing to measure networks, instead of crowdsourced data, has long had Verizon in first place, with T-Mobile languishing at the back of the pack. T-Mobile had a LTE coverage signal of 93.14%.

First, the results show that while AT&T and Verizon were severely impacted by launching unlimited data plans past year, with both of the biggest carriers in the United States seeing drops in overall download speeds as their 4G LTE networks were stressed by more data consumption.

Per the report, both AT&T and Verizon saw a dramatic shortage in 4G connectivity after offering unlimited plans. This reduces the traffic on the network and helps boost speeds for other customers who rely exclusively on their 4G connection to make calls and use data for applications.

Yes, even Sprint has a chance - the network's speed download speed leaped an impressive 33 percent compared to a year ago. That places AT&T behind its own performance this time previous year, making it the only company to have lost 4G performance compared to the OpenSignal February 2017 report. Although that metric is an incredibly close race between all four, and T-Mobile stands out notably ahead when it comes to the most important factors for consumers, namely data speeds and 4G availability. In comparison, T-Mobile won every other category except availability by a reasonable margin. It will be free for existing AT&T customers.

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Per the report: "T-Mobile has clearly taken advantage of Verizon's 4G speed challenges".

Speaking of Sprint, although it may still rank last in all of the above metrics, it is by far the most improved carrier throughout 2017. The only category they didn't win was 4G latency, which AT&T posted the best score in.

T-Mobile USA Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) built on a lead it established last summer to once again claim the title as the fastest 3G and 4G mobile networks in the United States.

Save for AT&T's win in the 4G latency rankings, T-Mobile brought home the gold in 4G download speed, 3G download speed, overall download speed, 3G latency and 4G availability. Sprint and Verizon fell far behind with both at almost 70ms. For speeds, T-Mobile won in 8 while tying others in another 24. The agency felt that Big Red subscribers might not be used to having unlimited data, and many could have had their data speed throttled for going over Verizon's 22GB monthly data cap for unlimited subscribers. In 2018, we'll find out if Verizon's unlimited struggles amount to just a minor pit stop in the 4G race or whether Verizon has been lapped by T-Mobile.

As comprehensive as OpenSignal's report results are, download speeds will always vary by region and device (different phones have different modems capable of different peak download speeds). The foundations of those 5G services will be built on the 4G infrastructure we use today.

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